Fallen Fruit:¡Estás como mango! is an exhibition of contemporary art and public practice that opened at Oficina de Proyectos Culturales (OPC) in Puerto Vallarta on May 23, 2015 and is the first solo exhibition by the Los Angeles-based Fallen Fruit collective in Mexico. The ¡Estás como mango! exhibition also marks the one-year anniversary of OPC.

The exhibition is presented as a series of projects that together form a critical body of contemporary artworks that explore the relationship of local culture and tourist culture to a geographical area of Puerto Vallarta. The series of artworks were created from research conducted during several visits by the artists to Puerto Vallarta where they studied local history, collected personal stories, and explored streets and alleys of the city where fruit from trees was publicly accessible. ¡Estás como mango! is a project that collectively focuses upon two aspects of Puerto Vallarta history: first is the notion of communal land; the second is the privatization and the commercialization of these communal lands.

The ¡Estás como mango! exhibition will include site-specific art works, including a Puerto Vallarta-themed fruit wall paper that will serve as the background of the gallery exhibition; a limited-edition magazine with artworks made by local Puerto Vallarta community members; the planting of an Urban Fruit Trail; and specially tailored Saturday morning workshop for youth. The art installations at OPC will re-contextualize local narratives using fruit and images of Puerto Vallarta as a subject, object and symbol.

The artworks will respond to people and place and use local fruit as a connector. In the case of Puerto Vallarta, Fallen Fruit found that the mango is paramount to local culture. Mangos were imported to this tropical beach town and form part of its foundation in terms of urban planning, infrastructure, and culture.

Urban Fruit Trails:The Urban Fruit Trails is an installation of approximately 20 fruit trees along the interstitial spaces of Vallarta neighborhoods connecting Centro Histórico to Playa de Los Muertos. Fallen Fruit and OPC will be in collaboration with the public and the Vallarta Botanical Gardens, to create the first Urban Fruit Trails project in Puerto Vallarta.

Fallen Fruit Magazine:The first issue and public participatory project was created in Vallarta at OPC on March 28. The Fallen Fruit Magazine brought together public participation, local histories and storytelling. Using strategies of collage, community members produced in one-day a site-specific limited-edition contemporary culture magazine that will debut at the exhibition opening.

About Fallen Fruit:Fallen Fruit is a collaborative art project that began in Los Angeles in 2004 with mapping “public fruit” – fruit that grows on or over public property. Their projects include diverse site-specific artworks that embrace public participation. Fallen Fruit’s art works invite people to experience their city as a fruitful, generous place, inviting people to engage in sharing and collectively explore the meaning of community and collaboration through public participation and exhibition programs.

The Fallen Fruit public participatory projects are cross-generational site-specific works of art and engage sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and the “sense of self”. Fallen Fruit projects use fruit as a material to examine people and place and explore issues of cultural meaning. The installation projects often addresses these questions within the context of public space or the boundaries of public and private. In the case of ¡Estás como mango! the narratives will include local rituals and cultural tourism as themes in the exhibition.

Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young. Since 2013, David and Austin have continued the collaborative work.

Oficina de Proyectos Culturales (OPC) is an independent non-profit arts organization dedicated to fostering dialogue through exhibitions, round table discussions, public art and arts education programs. OPC works with artists, architects, curators, academics, and writers who explore ideas that shape our city and to develop cultural programming that is firmly rooted in Puerto Vallarta, yet international in scope.

Fallen Fruit: ¡Estás como mango! is an exhibition of contemporary art and public practice that will open at Oficina de Proyectos Culturales (OPC) in Puerto Vallarta on May 23, 2015 and is the first solo exhibition by the Los Angeles-based Fallen Fruit collective in Mexico. The ¡Estás como mango! exhibition also marks the one-year anniversary of OPC.

The exhibition is presented as a series of projects that together form a critical body of contemporary artworks that explore the relationship of local culture and tourist culture to a geographical area of Puerto Vallarta. The series of artworks were created from research conducted during several visits by the artists to Puerto Vallarta where they studied local history, collected personal stories, and explored streets and alleys of the city where fruit from trees was publicly accessible. ¡Estás como mango! is a project that collectively focuses upon two aspects of Puerto Vallarta history: first is the notion of communal land; the second is the privatization and the commercialization of these communal lands.

The ¡Estás como mango! exhibition will include site-specific art works, including a Puerto Vallarta-themed fruit wall paper that will serve as the background of the gallery exhibition; a limited-edition magazine with artworks made by local Puerto Vallarta community members; the planting of an Urban Fruit Trail; and specially tailored Saturday morning workshop for youth. The art installations at OPC will re-contextualize local narratives using fruit and images of Puerto Vallarta as a subject, object and symbol.

The artworks will respond to people and place and use local fruit as a connector. In the case of Puerto Vallarta, Fallen Fruit found that the mango is paramount to local culture. Mangos were imported to this tropical beach town and form part of its foundation in terms of urban planning, infrastructure, and culture.

Urban Fruit Trails:The Urban Fruit Trails is an installation of approximately 20 fruit trees along the interstitial spaces of Vallarta neighborhoods connecting Centro Histórico to Playa de Los Muertos. Fallen Fruit and OPC will be in collaboration with the public and the Vallarta Botanical Gardens, to create the first Urban Fruit Trails project in Puerto Vallarta.

Fallen Fruit Magazine:The first issue and public participatory project was created in Vallarta at OPC on March 28. The Fallen Fruit Magazine brought together public participation, local histories and storytelling. Using strategies of collage, community members produced in one-day a site-specific limited-edition contemporary culture magazine that will debut at the exhibition opening.

About Fallen Fruit:Fallen Fruit is a collaborative art project that began in Los Angeles in 2004 with mapping “public fruit” – fruit that grows on or over public property. Their projects include diverse site-specific artworks that embrace public participation. Fallen Fruit’s art works invite people to experience their city as a fruitful, generous place, inviting people to engage in sharing and collectively explore the meaning of community and collaboration through public participation and exhibition programs.

The Fallen Fruit public participatory projects are cross-generational site-specific works of art and engage sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and the “sense of self”. Fallen Fruit projects use fruit as a material to examine people and place and explore issues of cultural meaning. The installation projects often addresses these questions within the context of public space or the boundaries of public and private. In the case of ¡Estás como mango! the narratives will include local rituals and cultural tourism as themes in the exhibition.

Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young. Since 2013, David and Austin have continued the collaborative work.

Oficina de Proyectos Culturales (OPC) is an independent non-profit arts organization dedicated to fostering dialogue through exhibitions, round table discussions, public art and arts education programs. OPC works with artists, architects, curators, academics, and writers who explore ideas that shape our city and to develop cultural programming that is firmly rooted in Puerto Vallarta, yet international in scope.